Story Behind The Song
I was still a university student when a friend asked me to tune an ancient guitar that he had found in some musty corner. Its strings were so loose that their sound reminded me of an Indian sitar. Excited by this, I forgot all about my friend and fiddled with the guitar until I struck upon a new tuning. In fact, I was so excited by this that I have written many more pieces in the different tunings since. I wrote this piece using both, a slide and a bow to capture a fleeting picture of India's gorgeous melodies. The harsh strumming, so common in the rock music of the West, is deliberately used as a contrast to these.
While writing this way, I found myself thinking of the clash of cultures that used to be when the country was a British colony. For the title of the piece, I thank Francisco Tarrega and his almost universally played guitar piece, 'Recollections of Alhambra'. In contrast to other composers who like to 'recollect' their favourite places via their music, I decided to 'recollect' a place I'd never actually visited.
Song Description
This piece is written for an amplified acoustic guitar showcasing multitude of guitar techniques, including:
~ retuning 5 strings of the guitar to 'B' to imitate the sitar
~ playing with a violin bow across string string (ethnic violin and cello effects),
~ playing with an unique angular metal slide (hitting the strings in different positions to achieve different harmonic effects)
~ hitting different (wooden) parts of the guitar to achieve percussive effects
~ fast bass string finger tapping while strumming the strings bellow, etc.
Song Length |
7:48 |
Genre |
Unique - Unclassified, New Age - Tribal |
Tempo |
Multiple Tempos |
Era |
1990 - 1999 |
This track is on 2 Member Playlists